August 23 (evening session)

During the evening session of August 23, last pleas are made by Ter-Vaganyan and Fritz David.

In his last plea, the accused Ter-Vaganyan fully admits his guilt before the Soviet state and the Party.

"I am crushed by the weight of all that was revealed here,"says Ter-Vaganyan. "I am crushed by the speech of the State Prosecutor."

"It is very hard to bear when, by the whole course of one's crime, one finds oneself in the position of an enemy, of a fascist being tried by a proletarian court. In such a moment it would of course be hypocrisy if I did not say one thing: I would like to have the opportunity of exerting every effort to fill the abyss, the chasm, which separates me from my former comrades.

"I bow my head in guilt before the Court and say: whatever your decision may be, however stern your verdict, I accept it as deserved."

"I want to assure the proletarian Court," says the accused Fritz David, "that I curse Trotsky. I curse that man who ruined my life and pushed me into heinous crime."